The overnight direct flight from Seattle to Reykjavik on Iceland Air was uneventful. I paid to get the extra legroom of an exit row seat which was nice. The fact that the first row of exit seats doesn’t recline wasn’t so nice. The flight left on time at 11:30 pm and arrived in Iceland around 2:00pm. The flight was a little over 7 hours with a 7 hour time change. I had checked my backpack because wasn’t sure that my hiking poles would pass TSA security and I’m not sure that my fully packed backpack would have been within Iceland Air’s carryon size limit. Exiting the airport was easy. There was no line at passport control and I was relieved to see bag drop onto the baggage claim carrousel. It was then a short trip out the door, where there was no line to get a bus ticket on the FlyBus that departed shortly after I got on board.
The FlyBus drops people off at the Reykjavik central bus station and from there it was about a 10 minute walk to the guest house where I’d be staying for two nights before joining the hiking trip. I made reservations at the Audur Guesthouse because it was located fairly close to the bus station, but was also convenient to the main Reykjavik tourist area. I knew it didn’t look like much from the street, but I was a little disappointed at just how plain it looked and the fact that it was adjacent to a fairly busy street. I was hoping that my room would be in the back, but so such luck. My room the small room with the window on the upstairs left.
The good news is that traffic did die down around 10:00 pm and the two nights here gave me practice in sleeping with earplugs, which turned out to be a necessity when sleeping in the huts on the Hidden Trails trip. The guesthouse was otherwise quiet, and turned out to have the best coffee machine of the entire trip.
After finding my room and dropping my luggage, I ventured out to find some food before returning and getting some much needed sleep.
I spent the next day exploring a bit around Reykjavik and visited the national Museum of Iceland, where I learned about the settlement and history of Iceland. I also walked around and revisited some of the sites we’d seen during our family trip in 2018. I finished the day with a visit to a neighborhood swimming pool. Every town in Iceland has a public swimming pool with heated water and often at least one hot pot. The pool I visited had three different hot water pools, a cold plunge, and steam room. It was very popular, especially on a Sunday evening as the pools were full of people and families of all ages talking and carrying on. It was quite the experience.
The next day, I needed to check out by 10:00 am, but had until 3:00 pm until I needed to meet the hiking group so I decided to walk over to the new harbor and catch a shuttle to Videy Island. I had several hours to walk around the island before catching a shuttle back to the old harbor and walking to Amorak Adventures office. Videy Island was one of the first places in Reykjavik to be inhabited and was the site of a farm, dairy cows, and a small village. No one lives there now, but a church and house that now houses a restaurant and small gift shop remain. There were few other people on the Island when I was there.
